Apple’s iOS 26.4 arrives in public beta with AI music playlists, video podcasts, and extra

The replacement is at the moment accessible in public beta, with the general public launch anticipated someday in March or April.

Apple Music’s AI playlist

One of the noticeable enhancements arrives in Apple Music—iOS 26.4 introduces a brand new AI-powered “Playlist Playground” function that leverages Apple Intelligence. The function permits customers to generate a customized 25-song playlist from textual content immediately, comparable to “upbeat exercise combine” or “calm night.” Customers can then additionally refine the outcomes and even choose matching cowl artwork.

As well, Apple Music’s consumer interface has been refreshed to showcase full-screen paintings for albums and playlists.

Concert events Close to You

Plus, Apple Music is getting a brand new “Concert Events Close to You” part that helps customers uncover surprise reveals from their favorite artists. You may filter this part by date and style or change areas when you’re touring.

Apple Podcasts video episodes

Following Spotify’s push into video, Apple’s Podcasts app is making it straightforward to change backwards and forwards between audio and video episodes with this launch. Creators can publish video podcasts utilizing HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), and listeners can seamlessly change between audio and video playback throughout the identical episode, shifting to a full horizontal show in the event that they select it.

At launch, the video episodes might be built-in with different Apple Podcasts options, like personalized suggestions and editorial curation on the New tab and Class pages, just as audio podcasts are.

HLS additionally brings an automated high-quality adjustment function, which helps movies play higher whether or not listeners are on Wi-Fi or mobile. Plus, customers will have the ability to obtain video episodes for offline viewing. At launch, HLS is supported by Acast, Amazon’s ART19, Triton’s Omny Studio, and SiriusXM, together with SiriusXM Media, AdsWizz, and Simplecast.

Creators will have the ability to dynamically insert video adverts, together with host-read spots, into their podcasts, too. Apple doesn’t charge creators to distribute podcasts; nevertheless, it says that, beginning later this year, collaborating advertising networks must pay an impression-based charge for the supply of the dynamic adverts within the HLS movies.

Encrypted RCS messaging

Messaging can also receive a necessary improvement with encrypted Rich Communication Services (RCS), which begins testing in iOS 26. 4. Finish-to-end encryption for RCS conversations will someday help guarantee messages between iPhone customers and Android customers are simply as safe as iMessage.

At present, Apple is just testing this between iPhones in beta. These conversations might be labeled as encrypted and can’t be learned when dispatched between units. The corporate notes that the function might be launched publicly in a later software program update for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, and the beta isn’t accessible for all units and carriers.

Stolen Machine Detection is on by default

Safety enhancements are one other spotlight of iOS 26.4. Stolen Machine Safety is now enabled by default, including an additional layer of biometric authentication for delicate actions comparable to accessing saved passwords or ensuring account modifications. By requiring Face ID or Contact ID authentication in additional eventualities, Apple reduces the danger of unauthorized entry if a tool is stolen and the passcode is compromised.

CarPlay provides in-car video playback

Drivers utilizing Apple CarPlay can even discover modifications. CarPlay now helps in-car video playback for chosen apps—together with the Apple TV app—however, solely when the automobile is parked to ensure security. This enhancement introduces new leisure choices for passengers once they’re stopped or while they’re ready within the automotive for a time period. (Hooray for fogeys within the pickup line in school!)

Third-party AI providers come to CarPlay

CarPlay for the primary time will supply entry to third-party AI providers like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude.

Audio Zoom in Digital camera app

In the meantime, the Digital Camera app introduces Audio Zoom. When recording video, the microphone focuses on the topic as you zoom in, lowering background noise and enhancing readability. This function makes it simpler to seize speeches, performances, or interviews without exterior audio gear.

Moreover, the Ambient Music function is now accessible by a widget, letting customers immediately play soundscapes designed for focus, sleep, or rest straight from the House Display, as an alternative to simply the Management Middle as earlier. The function, first launched in iOS 18.4, added a wide range of ambient sounds to stream throughout classes like Sleep, Chill, Productiveness, and Wellbeing.

“Pressing” reminders

There’s additionally a brand new “Pressing” part within the Reminders app that teams high-priority duties and may set off extra outstanding alerts when deadlines are strategic. Setting a reminder as pressing will add an alarm so that you’re certain to not miss the occasion.

And extra …

Just a few different smaller options embody the next:

• A brand-new unified Apple Account Hub within the App Retailer, Apple Music, and different Apple apps replaces the “profile” function that was beforehand used.
• A brand new animation is within the Messages app while you draft a message.
• An up-to-date Wallpaper Gallery separates the totally different classes in a brand-new method; the same design got here to the Apple Watch Face Gallery as well. The brand-new model consists of sections for Climate, Astronomy, Emoji, and Extra, amongst other modifications.
• Apple Music permits you to add songs to a number of playlists without delay.
• The Wellbeing app provides a brand new metric: Common Bedtime, which reveals the common time you went to mattress over the previous two weeks. The Vitals part was additionally up to date to incorporate a blood oxygen degree on the day-by-day graph.
• Freeform provides a content material hub for Creator Studio subscribers, offering entry to new AI options and high-quality artwork. Its icon was up to date, too.
• The Private Hotspot function now features a Knowledge Utilization part that reveals how much knowledge has been dispatched to your gadget and which Apple and non-Apple units have been utilizing your knowledge.
• Dwell Captions provides assistance for the Chinese language (Taiwan) beneath the language choices.
• There’s a brand new “Set Battery Cost Restrict” motion in Shortcuts.
• The App Retailer’s search bar is again at the top of the display.
• The hyperlink to iCloud.com will get a bigger, featured part throughout the iCloud part within the Settings app. Earlier than that, there was solely a toggle to “Entry iCloud Knowledge on the Internet.” Now it’s extra, like a giant advert for iCloud.

Notably absent from this launch is a next-generation Siri expertise. Whereas Apple has signaled deeper AI ambitions for its voice assistant, these bigger modifications don’t seem to be in iOS 26.4, reportedly delayed once more.